I don’t think there is any advantage to the lit spot. Most players eye where the extra ball is and pick that first. It can also be lucrative to pick bonus hold and go for the spinner millions throwing spike award - especially if you can stack with multi-ball. Picking any 3 in a row in the matrix increases jackpots 3X, but this is small compared to spinner millions and bonus hold. All the big points are Spinner Millions/Bonus Hold, Yukaza Strike and Powerdown.

You can go with the first column, those are the 3 jet lanes. Then in multiball you get 3x jackpots on any lane hit with the balls being fed right into the pops. Balls that come out below can be drained and are fired back into the pops as long as your ballsave is on. Pretty easy way to get some decent points (got about 1B from this) just from starting MB..

But yeah, hold/award bonus can be much better if you had spinner millions in this ball and have the multiplier up to 4x.

Thanks a lot! That all makes sense and helps. I think going for the bonus mult and spinner millions will be awesome. I am replacing my spinner with a new one, mine is pretty beat up. I’ll add some Super Lube and it should fly.

Also ordered the new X and Y axis nuts for the glove. Mine is pretty noisy, and the nuts are clearly stripped. Hope that helps.

Yes. The really big points are just spinner millions + bonus + hold bonus (if not the last ball!)
Especially with the bug in hold bonus counting the bonus TWICE! Did you noticed that btw?
You can get to 20 bil with 10-20 spinner shots and then get the hold bonus.

No, I didn't know about the bug. Will need to pay more attention. My spinner doesn't always return to the vertical position which can screw me during spinner millions. I don't mind though since it makes it more challenging to blow up the score.

I’m really enjoying JM. More than I thought we would even. My wife loves this game. I never know what pins she will like, she likes Junkyard and potc (Stern) most. But I waxed our new JM, installed a new spinner, new nuts on the glove and new rubber. Also added LEDs above the Crazy Bob sign. I need one under the scoop now. Upgraded the dim, burned out DMD too. I finally got to Power Down, and over 10 billion. Still getting the hang of it, but this is a shooter’s pin.

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Put a JM Left Ramp on ebay along with a bunch of other NOS parts:

NOS Johnny Mnemonic bare Left Ramp
ebay.com link: itm

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Do you happen to have the plastic key fob? I’ve been looking since buying my machine and not willing to buy the one that’s constantly on eBay for $99

YES! Took a couple years of waiting, but I was in the right place at the right time!

ebay.com link: Williams Johnny Mnemonic Pinball Playfield NOS

I was looking at that too, but didn't pull the trigger because it is MDF core instead of plywood..... Can anyone comment on the difference?

Google is amazing:

https://civiltoday.com/civil-engineering-materials/timber/163-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mdf

BL: with a PF protector on it, it is worth the risk to me when the day comes that I swap. Heck, I can send my PF off to someone to touch-up/CC and have this in the game until the day comes I have to swap back.

JM PFs are so fricking rare it seems, I was ok with risking it this time.

I have a left and right ramp listed on Market here on PinSide if anybody is looking
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/96017

Looking for some advice: I've got a line on a Johnny for a good price, but the glove isn't working. Is the glove a pain to fix? I've got a little bit of pinball-repair experience, and my dad is a pretty good tech but more experienced with older games. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, but I'm not afraid to put a little work in.

It’s not that hard, just take lots of pictures as you take it apart, clean and lube the x and y rods and nuts, remove and solder as you need to to get access or remove things and put back together keeping good wire management.

Just be methodical and don’t take any shortcuts. There are some very small e-clips and set-screws - use the right size tools. Should replace x & y nuts, and open gear box to inspect and re-grease. Rods usually just need to be cleaned since nuts are made to wear. There are also rubber couplers that are usually fine but some people choose to replace.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jm-johnny-mnemonic-hand-motor-noisy

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tech-jm-glove-problem

These are helpful to look at and get an idea of what's in store. It's not as bad as it appears but it requires disassembly.

Anyone have a spare speaker-panel cover? The panel on my Johnny has a gouge right in the middle of the DMD. It's not really visible while playing, but it is a little annoying. Hard to ignore once you know it's there. No one seems to have exact replacements in stock anywhere online. A place in Europe sells them without the Williams logo, so that's an option. But price is kinda high for what you get.

Is Johnny the only game to use this particular panel cover?

This one looks good in case you can't find an original
https://www.letgo.com/en-us/i/replacement-speaker-panel-plastic-translite-for-pinball-machine_a6071858-adc7-4ee7-9cdc-7b29bda71672

Oh yeah, I just assumed the ship had long since sailed on these custom panels! Didn't realize that there was a chance to still get one. Thanks for the heads up. I might contact him about it.

In nice or lightly modded working condition they are anywhere from 2800-3200 but have been going up every year for the last 5 years. There just aren't that many good DMD era pins left under $3k.

That said it's a lot of work if you have never fixed a JM and I wouldn't buy a project unless it was very cheap. Just pass if it's been sitting for 15 years as the boards could be bad or any number of things that could flip it upside down quick. If I was committed to the idea though I would go through it with a fine tooth comb and still wouldn't get close to 2700.

JM also really benefits from LED OCD boards and a ColorDMD. Two upgrades worth doing.

Recently, my glove started dropping balls early. When this happens the game gets confused and the glove freezes in place. I can usually get it to return to normal operation by cycling High V with the coin door. It mainly happens when I reach the far right drops of the matrix. I've also noticed that it seems like the wires are getting a bit bunched up when the hand is against the far right.

So I took a look behind the glove, and I'm pretty new, but can I assume that there shouldn't ever really be a twist-cap wire connection on a pinball machine? The black wire is going into the magnet of the hand, and the red wire is going into the rest of the wiring harness. At this point, my guess would be that the twist-cap is getting bumped when the hand is fully to the right and breaking/weakening the connection. Thus, killing power to the magnet?

Would soldering those wire together properly (with heat-shrink over the connection, of course) fix my problem do you guys think?

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I'm skeptical that's your problem since it would be odd for the connection to fail and then return to a state where it had proper voltage to pull the ball into the hand - all without blowing a fuse. You can pull the playfield partially out and look at what is going on with the wiring in the hand test mode. But certainly would be good to remove the wire nut and solder or at least replace with a nylon crimp connector.

Maybe something is going on with the ball in hand switch or overall dressing of the wire harness. There are some Service Bulletins and Manual Addendums on ipdb.org dealing with troubleshooting the magnet and dressing the wire harness that may help.

Well, I'm hoping it's just the twist nut. I figure it's at least a good place to start. But as you said, it could be the routing of the wires. As I've noticed that they bunch up when the hand nears the far end of the x-axis. I assume that ideally that's not supposed to happen?

Luckymoey is probably right as I’ve fixed that problem on one with the hand switch wire moving so it deactivates the magnet.

I have also seen the wire get frayed from movement and that cause the same thing.

Edit: Grammar

Hey Waxx, how's it going? There do seem to be quite a few of us with JM's in the SF area now!

Anyway, tomorrow morning I'll connect those wires properly, and while I'm there I'll also try to cleanup the routing so nothing bunches or pulls anymore back there. Hopefully, after doing those two things I'll be good to go. But we'll see; I'll post an update once I know one way or the other.

I think on one of my JMs I zip-tied the wire and switch so they wouldn't move but also wouldn't bind.

Good Luck

Cleaned things up a bit this morning, played about 10 games and so far so good. I'm not completely happy with the current routing, there were all ready a lot of zip ties in places behind the backboard. I think ideally I'd go over all the connections to the glove, and then find a better routing solution than the one currently in place. Right now, I'm a bit tired of messing with it. I figure the next time the glove acts up, I'll break down and go through it fully.

Just picked up a JM. Looking for a new translite and topper. TIA

Quick question for the group...

Just picked up my 3rd JM...having an issue w/ the hand. The magnet catches the ball no problem but doesn't always release from the glove. It gets stuck in there & the slightest tap of the ball releases it. Possible that the balls themselves are magnetized causing the issue? Any suggestions appreciated! Thanks

I would try new balls

Been wanting to join this club for years now. I'm in! Looking forward to restoring it too, but until then the only thing I need to make the game more reliable is the plastic cover above the left ramp. I can 'make' a temp version, but was hoping someone here had a good scan or can make one. PM me please and thank you.

Added this nifty little mod. It's really a high quality, mirror finished heavy weight steel. It has a wood screw thread on it that I used a die on to make it fit the 6/32 post. $11 on Ebay.

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Also just installed the powder coated parts on my game. A friend is getting into it on a small personal level and considered mine a practice run, so I just paid for materials. I installed the side rails with the minimum about of tape so they will come off easily if I decide to put on new cabinet decals.

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Hello all!

My JM had 3 issues when I got it:
1/ Hand sometimes acting up
2/ Plastic on top of left ramp broken
3/ Fading cabinet decals

I guess everyone in this club has (or had) these 3 issues at some point.

I quickly took care of 1 and 2.

What's the best way to go about 3?
Why are the decals apparently only available from Europe? Are there many flavors?
I heard some people were replacing only the bottom part of the decals (red rectangle area, with "Johnny Mnemonic" title)... can it be an easy solution to refresh the cab?

Looks good. What do you mean by used a die on the screw? How exactly do you get it to fit?

The art would need to be relicensed to be legally reproduced, probably including from K. Reeves. The half decals were sold quietly a number of years ago and were likely done that way to minimize risk of Planetary Pinball taking licensing action. The quality was not very good. The European ones are better and I believe come in 2 or 3 versions, but I’d stick with the original look unless you’re OK with taking a hit on resale.

The star has a wood screw attached to it. I took a 6-32 die out of my tap and die set, and slowly rethreaded the existing attached wood screw. I was surprised it actually worked. I should have taken photos, I'd take it out to show you, but had to remove the two ramps to put it in. Got the tap and die set at Harbor Freight for $17. A good tool to have around.

I noticed some wear spots on inserts today. I'm going to install a playfield protector on it to help prevent anymore wear. I guess with this it gives me a reason for a good topside teardown and clean.

Anyone bench test the hand mech? If so what type of power supply did you use.

Also I want to touch up the hand mech frame work. I think gunmetal grey? Mine has some wear on the top, but the majority of the frame work is original color and in good shape.

Looking for a playfield if anyone has a lead. Thanks

Has anyone ever thought about doing something like Tron's Eli ramp-style with JM's ramps? Also while I was way out there, I wonder if it's possible to paint the gloves with blacklight-reactive paint that wouldn't show under normal lighting, but would give another bit of weirdness to the playfield. For the cherry on top, might as well do either of the previous ideas for the grid too.

My JM came with blue EL wire around all the ramp edges from the previous owner, It looks really nice. It's tied into a 12 VDC source that comes on with the game.

pics?

damadczar
First pic is just the EL during game boot - the lights come on immediately before the game lights come on.
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what material did you use to keep it in position?

Now I'm picturing the glow paint on the gloves and MORE WIRE around the upper grid. It looks pretty good.